Some E-Books Are More Equal Than Others — This morning, hundreds of Amazon Kindle owners awoke to discover that books by a certain famous author had mysteriously disappeared from their e-book readers. These were books that they had bought and paid for—thought they owned.

Amazon Says It Will Stop Deleting Kindle Books — By deleting two unauthorized Orwell books from the Kindle devices of readers who had purchased them, Amazon highlighted how poorly real world expectations apply to the digital world. — Amazon on Thursday began e-mailing a few hundred owners …

Verizon's Handset Concessions Target AT&T, iPhone — Updated: Verizon said today it will offer smaller carriers access to any cell phone model it uses — even those exclusive to Verizon. Carriers who have fewer than 500,000 subscribers will have access to phones after only six months …

Slouching Toward a Coddled and Toothless Blogosphere — Remember when blogs were going to be fiercely independent firebrands who, purified of old media insidery stench, would pull no punches against traditional power structures? So much for that. Today's laptop media is shaping up to be nothing but lapdogs.

Google to monetize Voice via ringback advertising auctions? — The newly announced Google Voice looks like a great service that should ease your communication problems on multiple devices significantly. — And Google is already thinking of the ways of monetizing Voice. In a way it knows best - through advertising.

Fearless Feedback! Tech Workers Dish Dirt on Their Employers — Thinking about making a move to another company? Sure, the economy is in tatters and layoff announcement have become commonplace, but it's always nice to know whether or not people at other companies are as miserable enjoying their jobs as much as you.

Microsoft-Yahoo talks intensify — Negotiations between Microsoft and Yahoo over an alliance that could reshape the internet search business have intensified in recent days. — However, it is not yet clear if the latest talks will get any closer to a deal than discussions that failed earlier this year …

Changes to IE8's First Run — This blog post details a change we're making to IE8's first run experience, previously described in other posts here and here. The goal of the IE setup experience is to put IE users in control of their settings and respect existing defaults.

App stores are not the future, says Google — Apple customers may have downloaded 1.5bn applications from its AppStore in the past year for their iPhones and iPod touches, but the service does not represent the future for the mobile industry, according to Google.

Slowing down the Netbook train — Cheaper or faster? — That's going to be the burning question for computer shoppers perusing the aisles of electronics retail stores this fall. That's when the new line of notebooks powered by consumer ultra-low voltage (CULV) chips will start appearing in force.

Wikipedia's controversial video player coming soon — Wikipedia users will be getting new tools for uploading, editing, and viewing video very soon. According to a Beet.TV interview with Erik Moller, who is the deputy director of the Wikimedia Foundation, we'll see all of these things shortly.

Spotify Looks For A New Tune — The London online jukebox is launching in the U.S. later this summer. — LONDON — The way Americans listen to music online might be about to change. Music-streaming Web site Spotify, an online software program that gives Internet users instant and free access …

Wikipedia painting row escalates — The battle over Wikipedia's use of images from a British art gallery's website has intensified. — The online encyclopaedia has accused the National Portrait Gallery (NPG) of betraying its public service mission. — But the gallery has said it needs …

Experts: Oracle Database Option Price Hikes No Accident — Oracle's decision to hike the price of some add-ons for its flagship database by about 40 percent was far from a random act, since the modules are crucial to getting the database to perform at the highest level, a pair of experts said Friday.

A Harvard homecoming for Facebook tell-all — CAMBRIDGE, Mass.—Ben Mezrich's new book “The Accidental Billionaires,” a dramatic and contested account of the early days of social network Facebook, is on the fast track to Hollywood. — But Thursday night's inaugural public event for the book …

Apple/Microsoft sued over iPod/Zune controls — Apple, Microsoft and some 20 other companies are being sued for patent infringement by a Texas firm which claims to have invented the touchpad. — Tsera LLC filed the suit earlier this week at the US District Court, Eastern Texas Division.